On Thursday 25 October, MEPs adopted a firm resolution on the Cambridge Analytica scandal (see EUROPE 121114), which particularly criticises Facebook for its inability to have the personal data of millions of users protected.
"Facebook has not only violated the trust of European citizens but has also infringed Union law", the MEPs write. They furthermore recommend a social network to bring modifications to its platform in order to comply with the general regulation on data protection.
However, the MEPs almost did not vote. Several of them indeed called for the vote to be postponed, noting that there were no more than 372 MEPS left in the hemicycle. At least 38 MEPs supported the motion for postponement, but after ten minutes of shilly-shallying on the procedure, the voting finally resumed.
Among the biggest requests and recommendations of the text are: - the completion of a full and independent audit on how Facebook protects the personal data of its users by two EU agencies; - the application of conventional offline electoral guarantees; - and a ban on profiling for electoral purposes.
The amendment lodged by the ALDE Group inviting the next European Commission to create the post of a European commissioner tasked specifically with the protection of private life and data protection was adopted (see EUROPE 12123).
The amendment of the EFDD Group, which was concerned about the recent appointment of Nick Clegg, the former liberal British deputy prime minister, as the head of Facebook's global affairs and communication team, was rejected.
Privacy Shield. The EPP and ECR Groups called for a separate vote on the reference to the suspension of Privacy Shield, in line with the European Parliament's resolution in July (see EUROPE 12056). The two groups voted en bloc against this arrangement, this position having nevertheless not prevented its adoption by 201 votes in favour, 150 against and 10 abstentions.
On Twitter, Daniel Dalton (ECR, UK) was seen as very unhappy about the result of the vote. "The call for the European Commission to suspend the US-EU Privacy Shield is a reckless piece of political grandstanding", he tweeted, nevertheless saying that the chances of the European Commission pulling the plug on the Privacy Shield were zero. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)